We should be concerned about the serious lack of economic literacy that this shows in a huge portion of the Scottish population.
Serious landlords love price controls and regulation anyway.
It traps a tenant on a set rent and, because the tenant knows if he is kicked or moves out his rent will drastically increase to the market rate, they will take care of the flat to avoid being kicked out.
Instead you get life long tenants. See Germany where only 45% of the population owns while the rest rent for life.
More regulation means that if they tick these new boxes they can charge more as others will simply not bother.
Disappointing but expected that so many buy into this economic nonsence. People love an easy solution to a complex problem, even if it demonstrably doesnt work.
Overall:
Strongly support or tend to support: 82%
Strongly oppose or tend to oppose: 18%
Party affiliation:
SNP: 90% support
Labour: 88% support
Con: 61% support
Rent controls would work… if coupled with a period of catch up construction. As a stand alone option, I suspect many land-hoarders will sit with empty properties over having below par rents.
Turkeys voting for Christmas. As per usual.
I have personally benefited from the emergency rent legislation which has put the brakes on how much my landlord has been able to raise the rent over the last few years. Looking at the prices of flats on the marketnow in the area, my rent would likely have increased by hundreds of pounds per month had the legislation not been in place.
This shows we need much stronger rent controls, tied to property not just tenancy.
The arguments people are making against rent controls are similar to the arguments that were made against bringing in the minimum wage, but now there are no popular calls to remove this.
If the goal is an affordable home for everyone, we need strong rent controls, massive building of new social housing and also to try and reverse some of the damage done by thatchers right to buy.
Those who prioritise a small number of private individuals being able to massively profit over human need, will likely take offence at this.
Imagine what the rent strikers of Red Clydeside would be thinking. A century later and this issue still isn’t fixed.
I think there should be some sort of rent register that records when rent is paid on time.
My credit history is very poor due to certain circumstance meaning I can’t get a mortgage however in the 10 years I have lived in this property despite money issues I have never missed a rent payment. This is not recorded anywhere & if there was a mortgage on this flat it would be significantly less than what I pay in rent. But the bank would say you can’t afford x in monthly mortgage payments even though that is less than the rent.
I understand my risk is higher due to past credit but my rent history is only between myself & landlord & is not documented anywhere,
[removed]
Any measures that do not either reduce demand or increase supply will not make a difference.
I lost the flat I was renting in East Lothian because of the rent freeze. My landlord just decided it was time to sell when he couldn’t increase the rent anymore. I was lucky in that I could put a deposit down and buy a place shortly after (in a different region, mind), but others won’t be so lucky. That people don’t think there could be repercussions with vast rent controls is worrying. Yes, landlords may release properties to the market but they won’t suddenly be affordable to people who wouldn’t be able to buy them anyway. This could create a whole new problem.
Populist policy is popular is hardly a shock. The question is will it actually make anything better. History of every other time it’s been tried suggests not
Poll just shows economic illiteracy then. I don’t like landlordism in general, but really the only solution is to build build build.
*’what about rent controls?’*
*’you’ve already had it’*
*’we’ve had one yes, but what about second rent controls?’*
Rent controls will stop people renting out houses as they will won’t want to lose money, this may lead them to sell and perhaps lower prices. What is more likely is that it will cause a drop in the number of privately built homes, and, as the government is bankrupt no increase in government built homes. This would probably lead to higher rents overall. It would also increase the incentive for landlords not to maintain properties effectively.
People often substitute complex policies with their intended effects when asked questions. “Do you want rent controls?” becomes “Do you want lower rent?”. Rent controls have actual effects wildly different and less desirable than the intended ones, so these polls aren’t terribly useful.
17 comments
We should be concerned about the serious lack of economic literacy that this shows in a huge portion of the Scottish population.
Serious landlords love price controls and regulation anyway.
It traps a tenant on a set rent and, because the tenant knows if he is kicked or moves out his rent will drastically increase to the market rate, they will take care of the flat to avoid being kicked out.
Instead you get life long tenants. See Germany where only 45% of the population owns while the rest rent for life.
More regulation means that if they tick these new boxes they can charge more as others will simply not bother.
[The only thing that will help is build massively and that will bring prices and rents lower.](https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1765219846780752162)
Disappointing but expected that so many buy into this economic nonsence. People love an easy solution to a complex problem, even if it demonstrably doesnt work.
I don’t think the tables have been released but for those without Twitter and [access to Future Economy Scotland’s thread on this](https://x.com/FutureEconScot/status/1829483215846858809), the breakdown is as follows:
Overall:
Strongly support or tend to support: 82%
Strongly oppose or tend to oppose: 18%
Party affiliation:
SNP: 90% support
Labour: 88% support
Con: 61% support
Rent controls would work… if coupled with a period of catch up construction. As a stand alone option, I suspect many land-hoarders will sit with empty properties over having below par rents.
Turkeys voting for Christmas. As per usual.
I have personally benefited from the emergency rent legislation which has put the brakes on how much my landlord has been able to raise the rent over the last few years. Looking at the prices of flats on the marketnow in the area, my rent would likely have increased by hundreds of pounds per month had the legislation not been in place.
This shows we need much stronger rent controls, tied to property not just tenancy.
The arguments people are making against rent controls are similar to the arguments that were made against bringing in the minimum wage, but now there are no popular calls to remove this.
If the goal is an affordable home for everyone, we need strong rent controls, massive building of new social housing and also to try and reverse some of the damage done by thatchers right to buy.
Those who prioritise a small number of private individuals being able to massively profit over human need, will likely take offence at this.
Imagine what the rent strikers of Red Clydeside would be thinking. A century later and this issue still isn’t fixed.
I think there should be some sort of rent register that records when rent is paid on time.
My credit history is very poor due to certain circumstance meaning I can’t get a mortgage however in the 10 years I have lived in this property despite money issues I have never missed a rent payment. This is not recorded anywhere & if there was a mortgage on this flat it would be significantly less than what I pay in rent. But the bank would say you can’t afford x in monthly mortgage payments even though that is less than the rent.
I understand my risk is higher due to past credit but my rent history is only between myself & landlord & is not documented anywhere,
[removed]
Any measures that do not either reduce demand or increase supply will not make a difference.
I lost the flat I was renting in East Lothian because of the rent freeze. My landlord just decided it was time to sell when he couldn’t increase the rent anymore. I was lucky in that I could put a deposit down and buy a place shortly after (in a different region, mind), but others won’t be so lucky. That people don’t think there could be repercussions with vast rent controls is worrying. Yes, landlords may release properties to the market but they won’t suddenly be affordable to people who wouldn’t be able to buy them anyway. This could create a whole new problem.
Populist policy is popular is hardly a shock. The question is will it actually make anything better. History of every other time it’s been tried suggests not
Poll just shows economic illiteracy then. I don’t like landlordism in general, but really the only solution is to build build build.
*’what about rent controls?’*
*’you’ve already had it’*
*’we’ve had one yes, but what about second rent controls?’*
Rent controls will stop people renting out houses as they will won’t want to lose money, this may lead them to sell and perhaps lower prices. What is more likely is that it will cause a drop in the number of privately built homes, and, as the government is bankrupt no increase in government built homes. This would probably lead to higher rents overall. It would also increase the incentive for landlords not to maintain properties effectively.
People often substitute complex policies with their intended effects when asked questions. “Do you want rent controls?” becomes “Do you want lower rent?”. Rent controls have actual effects wildly different and less desirable than the intended ones, so these polls aren’t terribly useful.